Diane Sawyer's Biography

October 14, 2014

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Back home in the U.S., Sawyer reported from New Orleans on the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in the fall of 2005. She also conducted a live, exclusive interview with President George W. Bush in the midst of widespread criticism of his Administration's handling of the storm.

On September 11, 2001, along with Charles Gibson, Sawyer began the network's award-winning coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. In the days that followed, she reported live from Ground Zero and later interviewed more than 60 widows who gave birth after the World Trade Center disaster.

Sawyer's reporting has been recognized with numerous awards, including duPonts, Emmys, Peabodys, the grand prize of the premier Investigative Reporters and Editors Association, an IRTS Lifetime Achievement Award, and the USC Distinguished Achievement in Journalism Award. In 1997 she was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.

Sawyer joined ABC News in February 1989 as co-anchor of "Primetime." In addition to that role, she was named co-anchor of "Good Morning America" in January 1999, and held the post until taking over the "World News" anchor chair in December 2009.

Prior to joining ABC News, Sawyer spent nine years at CBS News, making history as the first female correspondent of "60 Minutes." She also co-anchored the "CBS Morning News" and was CBS News' State Department correspondent. While at CBS she covered the 1980, '84 and '88 national conventions as a floor and then podium correspondent.

Sawyer was part of the President Nixon transition team from 1974 to 1975 and assisted Nixon in the writing of his memoirs in 1974 and 1975. She began her career in broadcasting in 1967 in Louisville, Kentucky, where she was a reporter for WLKY-TV until 1970.

A native of Glasgow, Kentucky, and raised in Louisville, Sawyer received a BA from Wellesley College and completed a semester of law school before embarking on a career in broadcasting.